What’s a wiki?
Second Order Effects
London Bombings
08:50 on 7/7/2005
• 18 minutes later 1st
Wikipedia entry
• End of day
– 2500 users
– 14 page account
– More detail than any
other single new outlet
Peer Production
Wikipedia
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•
•
Editing
Volunteers
Collaboration  content
1,000,000 registered users
Over 100,000 contributed 10+ entries
About 5,000 hard core keeping it going
5 paid staffers
Problems
• Inaccuracies
– Anyone can claim to be an expert
– OR see it as developing a body of knowledge
Accuracy- NATURE magazine
Compared 42 Science entries
• Wikipedia
• 4 errors
• Encyclopaedia
Britannica
• 3 errors
• Argued theirs smaller
errors
• Junior version
What’s the DIFFERENCE?
Peer Production
Peer Production
• Linux operating system
• Open source software
Companies dedicating resources to
Linux development
Key Questions
• Do you as a manager
try and bury this
phenomena?
Traditional Software Production
A new Mode of Production
• Pure Form:
• “Way of producing goods
and services that relies
entirely on self-organizing,
egalitarian communities of
individuals who come
together voluntarily to
produce a shared outcome”
Wikinomics p67
A new Mode of Production
• In Reality:
• Elements of hierarchy
& self-organisation
• Meritocratic principles
of organising
Peer Production
• Rewards:
– Voluntary
– Non-monetary
Economics of Production
• Industrial
Economy
– Constraint
Peering
• Motivations
• Task Assignment
• Who knows best the
tasks you’re good at?
• Weak contributors
California Dept of Education
• Open source text book
• Insights and spare time of
teachers
• Saving taxpayers over
$400 M per year
• Same software as
wikipedia
Inverted Property Rights
• Traditionally– exclude others
• Peer Production
– Communities of producers
– “general public licence”
– Guarantee users rights to
share and modify works
– Provided
General Public License
• Larger number of contributors
• Interact with larger amounts of information
Peer Production
• Remove costs of negotiating contracts
• Can be efficient at resource allocation
• But What’s the motivation?
Peer Production- Motivation
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Passion
Enjoy
Experience
Exposure
Some- Paid
3 Conditions for Peering
(1) Object of production
(2) Tasks can be chunked
• Bite sized pieces
• Incremental contributions
• Minimise investment
(3) Low cost of Integration
• Low cost of
leadership/quality
control
Obstacles
• Peer review
• Integrate disparate
comments
• Rules for cooperation
• Free-riders
• Motivation